Prude [Anakin/Padmé, PG-13]

Title: PrudeAuthor:fiallerilRating: PG-13Word count: 1477Prompt:PT: Anakin/Padmé; He was a former slave from Tatooine, she was an aristocrat from Naboo--culture clash.Characters: Anakin, Padmé, Sola, mention of Ryoo and PoojaSummary: Anakin tells Padmé's nieces the facts of life, and Padmé is less than pleased.A/N: Technically this is pre-Anakin/Padmé, as it's set during their visit with Padmé's family before they go to the lake retreat.

Prude

“I can’t believe you told my nieces about sex!”

Anakin blinks at her. He apparently hasn’t grasped the gravity of the situation, for all he says is, “Well, they asked.”

They’re standing in her room with the door closed, and Padmé’s trying to keep her voice down because the last thing she needs right now is for her mother to catch them arguing. Or worse yet, Sola. If Sola hasn’t heard yet what he did, she’ll just take their argument as further evidence of the steamy love affair she’s imagined between her sister and the Jedi. If she has heard… Well, Padmé doubts that either she or Anakin will survive much past that point.

As if to make matters worse, it’s clear that Anakin is only giving her half his attention. The other half seems to be focused on perusing the holos on her wall, as if he hadn’t seen them all already. And he’s far too calm about the whole thing.

“Pooja is four, Anakin! And Ryoo’s only six!” She forgets for a moment that she’s trying to keep this argument quiet, but she can’t seem to help herself. It’s not just the fact that he told her (very young!) nieces about sex, apparently because they asked him where babies come from. It’s also the fact that he evidently knows what he’s talking about.

Apparently the Jedi Order has an excellent sex education program. Or at least a very good biology course.

“What were you thinking?” she demands, rounding on him and forcing him to look at her. He’s still wearing that blasted unruffled expression, as though they were just discussing the weather. She almost wishes she could make him angry; it might make this easier. Maybe she should suggest that he can’t tell her nieces about sex because she’s in charge of this mission. Not very logical, perhaps, but that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue with Anakin, and that tack certainly made him angry before.

“They asked,” he repeats, unflustered, though he’s beginning to look a bit confused by her reaction. “I was surprised no one had told them before, actually.”

She stares. “Anakin, they’re four and six! Of course no one had told them!”

He’s apparently realized that something is wrong, because now he’s starting to look a bit nervous. Good. He ought to be, since Sola is going to kill them both soon.

His brows draw together and he says, somewhat awkwardly, “Well, how old were you?”

The conversation is heading into rather uncomfortable territory now, but she shrugs off her unease in favor of making her point. “I was thirteen,” she says, as though the answer ought to be obvious.

But apparently it wasn’t obvious to Anakin, because now he’s gawking openly at her. “But,” he splutters (and she can’t tell whether it’s disbelief or laughter, or perhaps some combination of both), “you were already Princess of Theed by then!”

She hasn’t considered it that way before, but she can almost hear the question in his mind. You were old enough to govern, but you weren’t old enough to know about sex? The question is disconcerting enough that she sidesteps it entirely, and instead raises her head proudly and demands, “Well, how old were you when Obi-Wan told you?”

“Twelve,” he says, and she’s just about to say “I thought so” when he adds smugly, “But I had to correct him on a few points.”

He’s truly grinning now, and she’s beginning to wonder if he’s just been making fun of her this whole time. But no, what Ryoo and Pooja told her was definitely not a figment of her imagination.

When she still doesn’t say anything, Anakin takes pity on her and adds, “My mom told me when I was four.” His voice goes quieter and more serious when he mentions his mother.

“That seems…rather young,” Padmé says carefully.

“I was old enough to ask,” Anakin says with a shrug. “But of course I didn’t understand it all then.” He turns back to the holo he was examining before, the one of herself, Ermé, and Palo on their first day in the Legislative Youth Program. “When was this?”

She ignores the question. “Anakin,” she says tentatively, “on Naboo we don’t… We don’t usually talk about…these things with our children at such a young age.”

Anakin turns around and gives her a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “So I gathered.”

There’s silence for a few moments more between them, and then Anakin adds, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I suppose things are just different on Tatooine.”

Padmé realizes with a start that, after all this time, he still thinks of Tatooine as home. It’s a surprisingly comforting recognition. It means that not everything about him has changed, after all.

“Well, what is it like on Tatooine?” she asks, partly to defuse the situation, and partly because, although they’ve talked a lot about her own past, they haven’t spoken much about his, and she’s starting to realize just how little she really knows.

“Mom and I were lucky,” he says slowly, his eyes trained on the softly glowing holo rather than on her. “Watto was fairly important, or at least he had important friends, and he treated us well. We had one of the biggest houses in the Quarters, just for the two of us. But most of the others didn’t live like that. Usually whole families would share one room, and sometimes there’d be two or three families in one house.” He looks up at her now and surprises her with a genuine smile. “My friend Seek was free-born, and he actually had both of his parents. We used to all spend time at his house because our masters couldn’t come after us there. And sometimes, when his parents wanted to have sex, they’d say, ‘You kids go play outside now, we need some special time.’ And we all knew what that meant.” He smirks and adds, “Once there was a sandstorm, and they just told us to look out the window.”

Anakin’s laughing now, almost carefree. She feels like she’s just been told an inside joke and she doesn’t quite understand what’s so funny, but it is nice to hear him laugh again.

“I guess,” he says, his smile now more of a smirk, “when you grow up in such close quarters, you can’t afford to be a prude.”

A part of Padmé understands that this is just his way of overcoming the social difference between them. But it still feels like an affront. “I am not a prude!” she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him.

“They’re too young to understand what it means,” she insists, in that tone her nieces know means “and that’s the end of this discussion.”

Apparently that tone doesn’t work on Anakin. “What was I supposed to tell them, then?” he asks with a smirk. “They wanted to know where babies come from. Should I have lied?”

“Yes!” she exclaims, exasperated. “You’re a Jedi! You’re not even supposed to talk about these things!”

Anakin’s laughing so hard now that she’s afraid someone will hear him. “Oh, stop,” she grumbles, irritated. “You know what I meant.”

To her relief, Anakin does stop laughing. “The Jedi are celibate,” he says, “but that doesn’t mean we don’t know about reality.” He seems to consider this, then mumbles, “Well, maybe Master Obi-Wan didn’t know about…” He gives an amused snort and looks her in the eye. “So what should I have told them?”

He looks so earnest and even apologetic that she’s almost willing to forgive his blunder. He grew up very differently, after all. She supposes she should have expected some cultural differences.

“On Naboo we have a tradition,” she begins. “There’s a goddess named Eilithé who brings children to couples who are—” She breaks off when she notices Anakin snickering again. “What?”

He shakes his head with a grin. “You really are a prude.”

So much for cultural differences. Now he’s just trying to aggravate her.

“I am not a prude!”

It’s just then that the door slides open and Sola peeks her head in. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she says sweetly, though she doesn’t sound sorry at all. “Am I interrupting something?”

Anakin is snickering quietly. When she turns to glare at him, he mouths “prude” and winks at her.

That’s it. Obi-Wan may be upset with her for relieving him of his apprentice, but she figures that Anakin really has no one to blame but himself.

“Actually, Sola,” she says just as sweetly, “we were just coming to look for you. Anakin here has something he needs to tell you…”

Ha, I love it. :D The description of living conditions for slaves on Tatooine makes a lot of sense, and I can totally buy that Anakin would quite innocently have answered the 'where do babies come from?' question thinking it was no big deal, given he was raised in that atmosphere where sex is just a fact of life. Padme's exasperation was wonderful also. :D

Thanks! I actually got the idea from the memoir of a man who grew up in a one-room house on a reservation. His parents actually used the "look out the window while Mommy and Daddy are having their special time" line, and I just thought that would make a lot of sense in the poor culture of Tatooine. Glad it worked!

I bet Anakin was a terror in the Temple, too. :D Poor Obi-Wan. And Padme thinks she's got it bad...

Hehehehe. I have to agree with everyone else here; this was totally fun and humorous and struck all the right notes. And yes, it totally makes sense that Anakin wouldn't understand what the big deal was, growing up where he had. In a galaxy far far away, there are bound to be loads of different cultural norms, yes? :)

Thank you m'dear. :) I'm glad it was believable. Virgin!Anakin who still has no qualms whatsoever about discussing sex (sometimes in detail!) was surprisingly fun to right. I suspect he must drive Obi-Wan insane. :D

Ohhh interesting! I like to think of them as both being virgins. Except, of course, in the AU land where Anakin's with Palpatine first :) I'm not sure where Padme fits in there. I kinda like to not deal with her in my Ani/Palpy fics. lol

Anakin is in her room and honestly wanting to learn more about her from her holos on the wall, and she is flailing around worrying about appearances and the considerable wrath of Sola. This was a fun point in the saga, the two of them striving for control on the mission. I liked that he told them where babies come from, probably simply and truthfully given their ages, and did not mislead them with an answer like, "Cleveland."

I loved it. memories!I liked the culture clash and how funny they both were about revealing their social norms.

What I also love about your fic is that it rings true of how I imagine Anakin's knowledge of sex to be like. I can't tell you how many fics I have come across where they make Anakin so Clueless about sex and Padmé has to actually explain to him the birds and bees - on their wedding night no less. And it pisses me off. I would imagine your description of Tatooine's living conditions to be true as well as Anakin over hearing about sexual encounters from the pilots that came by.

Anyway... LOL at Obi-Wan having to be told a few things. Though I can imagine Anakin exaggerating.

And I can totally see how Padmé could govern a nation while uneducated about some aspects of life. She's not a prude, she's a lady ;) LOL

Thank you darling. :) I'm glad it rang true for you. I just can't imagine that anyone could grow up as a slave on Tatooine and not know about sex - and probably the darker aspect of it, as well. I do imagine Anakin is a virgin here, though. But that doesn't mean he's clueless. ;)

LOL at Obi-Wan having to be told a few things. Though I can imagine Anakin exaggerating.

Anakin is probably fairly unreliable when he's making fun of Obi-Wan. ;) But you never know...

Speaking of darker aspects, I read this great fic where one of his female friends from childhood feared being sold into a pleasure house. So I am sure he had second hand knowledge of such sad things. :(

I do imagine Anakin is a virgin here, though. But that doesn't mean he's clueless. ;)Me too. I'm one of those who believe they both were on their wedding night.He was studying to be a Jedi and she was married/dating her career.

LOL I am sure the Temple did have good sex ed/bio courses so I doubt Obi-Wan was that clueless.

In Anakin's book, lady and prude are synonyms, anyway.I need to have a few words with him then. He should feel proud he is in love with a respectable woman. LOL

In Anakin's book, lady and prude are synonyms, anyway.I need to have a few words with him then. He should feel proud he is in love with a respectable woman. LOL

Actually, I have a pretty serious reason behind saying that. ;)

Anakin grew up on a world where, as you mentioned, there are probably plenty of "pleasure houses" and anyone could be sold into them at any time, really. He knows that a "respectable woman" is only respectable because she has the money and/or the social position to afford it. The women (and possibly men) in the pleasure houses don't choose to be disreputable. They just don't have a choice. And in a culture that has a very clear-cut division between the slaves whose lives are defined by others and the respectable people who are free to define their own lives...well, there's bound to be a degree of animosity between the two.

So I think Anakin does see lady, prude, and "respectable woman" as all being synonyms. And those things may not have a very good connotation for him. Instead they bring to mind the sort of people who can afford to be prudish and respectable, because they do have a choice, and they can create screens with their words and hide behind polite talk. The slaves don't have that kind of luxury. So kids on Naboo can learn about the goddess Eilithé who brings babies to parents who ask for them, but the kids on Tatooine know that babies come from sex, and they even know that the mommy doesn't always want the daddy to do those things to her, but he does them anyway. It's not a very pretty picture, but it is reality.

While this fic was mostly in fun, I do think there's a bit of genuine resentment behind Anakin's teasing of Padmé. Because there is a huge cultural and (perhaps even more importantly) social/financial gulf between them, and even though it's been ten years since Anakin was on Tatooine, that kind of poverty isn't easily forgotten. No matter how much he adores Padmé, there are certain things he's experienced that she will never really understand. (And vice versa, of course.) I think that was present in the movies, as well, and it was never really resolved between them.

It made sense (I like discussing these points) and it was totally valid.That is an important and never resolved issue between them, the social status and having the freedom and money to choose your pleasures, whatever they may be.Padmé came along with Qui-Gon to explore Tatooine but how much did she really learn in one short visit? And at times I imagine Anakin was resentful & perhaps didn't feel worthy of her. Which could also be a factor in fall.

Eilithé- I always mean to ask this to other SW fic authors. How do you come up with original SW names? I always get stumped.

And at times I imagine Anakin was resentful & perhaps didn't feel worthy of her. Which could also be a factor in fall.

I imagine that was part of his fall, yeah. Or at least it contributed to him not telling her things, because he didn't think she would understand. And that would have made him feel more isolated...

How do you come up with original SW names?

Well... Confession time. Eilithé is actually a Naboo-ized version of the Greek goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia. So I cheated on that one. ;) But for other names I usually try to identify patterns of naming on the planet the character is from, if I can. On Naboo, for example, the -é seems to be a very common ending for girls' names. Naboo names are very sibilant, and they have a distinctly mythical feel to the sound. (Most of the names in Padmé's family either have direct connections to Hindu religion/mythology or at least have a rather Indian sound. Palpatine sounds like "Palatine," the famous hill in Rome. And so on.) Tatooine names, on the other hand, are a bit harsher, but they sound mythical in their own way.

Naming aliens is probably the easiest, because their names always seem to follow cultural patterns. Humans are harder because there is no single human culture in the GFFA. Honestly, often enough it just comes down to me making up a name that I think "feels" right for the character and their setting.

I think for me the most important part about naming an OC is to keep them connected to the place they come from (whether that's literal or the symbolic place they come from in your ideas). I just try to remember that names aren't independent of culture (though if a character is from a melting pot planet, there might be a lot of different names floating around that have mostly lost their meaning, the way names have in America). The name has to feel right for the character in their cultural framework. So I wouldn't name someone from Tatooine "Aira" because it feels too soft (and because Tatooine women's names don't tend to end in -a). But Aira might be a decent name for someone from Naboo or Alderaan.

I have noticed the constant ending of é for female Naboo names. I love it.I didn't know the Naberries' names had direct connections to Hindu religion/mythology.That's something I'll look into more.

For Nikkei I originally typed in "Nikki" and Word didn't know it and gave me alternates to use. That is how I got Nikkei. Then I looked it up and found what it meant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora)

The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as nikkei (日系, nikkei?), are Japanese emigrants from Japan and their descendants to other parts of the world.

Seemed very fitting.

Avel, at thinkbabynames.com I put in "breath" (because he can breath on his own and Vader couldn't) to find names with that meaning and Avel was a variation of Abel. Finding a name I liked and could stick with took me weeks.

Padmé means "lotus" and is also the third word in the Buddhist mantra om mani padme hum. Pooja (or puja) is Sanskrit for worship or reverence of the gods. I'm not sure if any of the other names have a direct meaning, but they have the same sort of sound.

It actually doesn't translate exactly. But here's some interesting information on what it means: here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_mani_padme_hum) and here (http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/meaning-of-om-mani-padme-hung.htm). :)

Hee! I can totally see this cultural clash happening many places in the SW galaxy, and living in cramped quarters like Anakin did would definitely teach you a few things. And Anakin is just so Anakin-ish with his "but I don't get what the problem is" attitude :D

As you've mentioned, Anakin would have been exposed to a lot of things as a slave and with all of the lowlifes hanging around Mos Espa. I would also imagine Anakin needed to know why he's "different" from all of the other kids. It seems to me Shmi was always truthful about her fatherless pregnancy.

That was sweetly hilarious. I love how Anakin is oblivious to what Padme's so upset about and the insight into his childhood. People with large families and small houses know its hard to find uh, privacy.

That was great - I liked the tone, and the outward frivolousness showing something so important about the two characters. In the films it is easy to forget that Anakin did grow up as someone else's property.

The films did kind of drop the entire slavery issue after TPM, which seems a bit odd to me, but I've always thought it must have had a major impact on Anakin's development as a person. Particularly because the Jedi don't ever seem to have dealt with the reality of what he experienced or the effects it must have had on him...